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Sermon: The Prayers of the Saints (Rev 8:1-5)
130 Plays6 months ago
In this sermon, I unpack the first 5 verses of Revelation 8 and talk through the 3 most common things that get in the way of prayer.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Seventh Seal and Prayer
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, thank you so much for tuning into the Office of Theology podcast. I'm excited to share some sermons that I've preached with you. In this sermon I break down Revelation chapter 8 verses 1 through 5. The seventh seal and the prayer of the saints also spend some time focusing on what keeps us from praying.
00:00:19
Speaker
So we are going to continue our Revelation series until it comes. I am kicking off chapter eight. And believe it or not, I'm reading only five verses. Usually we spend the first 15 just reading some scripture. We got five. But I've titled today's sermon, The Prayer of the Saints. The Prayer of the Saints.
00:00:39
Speaker
So before I jump into the text where we're going to land, I want to remind us where in the book of Revelation what has happened and where is this land.
Revisiting Revelation: The Seventh Seal
00:00:50
Speaker
So opening after the opening of the book of Revelation, Jesus appeared.
00:00:55
Speaker
to John to issue seven letters to seven churches. That's in chapter one through three. Jesus then summoned John up to the heavenly throne room where John saw Jesus the lamb being worshiped, which is chapters four and five.
00:01:10
Speaker
What prompted the heavenly host to worship Jesus is this, that he was found worthy, worthy to take the scroll and break the seals of judgments. Chapter six recounts what happened when the first six scrolls are opened. Before the seventh seal is opened, which will be today, there's chapter seven, which shows all God's people being sealed so they will be protected from God's wrath.
Prayer: A Powerful Offering to God
00:01:38
Speaker
Once God's people are sealed and protected, we land at chapter 8, like I said, where the seventh seal in the first four trumpets are blown. But today, like I said, we'll focus on the first five verses, the seventh seal in the prayer of the saints. What I just did there is like when you binge watch a TV show and it says, previously on, that's what I just did.
00:02:01
Speaker
So with that being said, let's pray. God, we thank you for today. We thank you for the gift that this is. And may our hearts be opened to be convicted and to turn back to you in the ways that our life are out of line with you, Jesus. God, we thank you for the word and the gift that it is. We say, come Holy Spirit, have your way in this gathering. It is not about us. It's not about true hope. It's about you being honored. So we say, you are the honored guest. You are wanted here. So thank you for coming and being here. We say this in your name.
The Silence in Heaven: Anticipation of Judgment
00:02:31
Speaker
Amen. All right, so Revelation chapter five, verses one through five, read this. When the lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Crazy. Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God and the seven trumpets were given to them.
00:02:54
Speaker
And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne.
00:03:07
Speaker
Verse 5
00:03:27
Speaker
Whoo, that's it. That's all we have to read today. But what's wild is that scene has a lot going on in it. So there's a handful of parts that I really want to address prior to what we feel like the main observations from this text is.
Main Observations of Revelation 8:1-5
00:03:40
Speaker
First is this, why was there silence in heaven? You think about that? So this is a truly shocking moment in the text.
00:03:50
Speaker
Some people have seen it as like breathing space or that the angels and the heavenly hosts are silent so the prayers of the saints can be heard or perhaps the cry of the martyrs from the fifth seal back in Revelation six, remember that? But what I think is more likely is the silence in heaven is an appropriate response in view of what is about to happen.
00:04:17
Speaker
The calm before the storm, if you will. The storm that is the wrath of the lamb that follows the trumpets. Sometimes when you write sermons, you research really weird stuff, I'm gonna be honest. So naturally, as I was reading Revelation 8, one through five, I said, what are tornadoes like? You know, just a normal thought pattern in sermon writing. Because there's something eerie that happens before a tornado comes.
The Power of Prayer and Incense
00:04:44
Speaker
Everything gets silent.
00:04:46
Speaker
The animals know that something is going, they're taking cover and it's eerily quiet before the disaster of a tornado comes. And I use that imagery to help us understand that in heaven, the seventh seal is broken of the wrath of the lamb. All of heaven's like, hold up. And they sit in silence, the calm before the storm of the wrath of the lamb. But think about and imagine this real quick.
00:05:15
Speaker
There's silence in heaven. Up until this point, it's been ceaseless praise by living creatures, by elders, by angels, by the multitudes. Then all of a sudden the lamb breaks the seventh seal, the final seal, and then all of heaven goes silent. Now imagine
00:05:35
Speaker
Sometimes you're like, well, half hour's not a very long time, Brennan. OK, well, if I'm preaching for 35 minutes and I stay silent for two minutes, that's going to feel uncomfortable, right? Because you're like, what are we doing? Silence is uncomfortable. Please say something. But the reality is that even though it doesn't feel like a long time, understand the context of what has been happening in heaven up until this point, and then it's silent. Whew.
00:06:01
Speaker
Silence is appropriate in the anticipation of the Lord's coming judgment.
00:06:09
Speaker
And so as we read on, you might ask, what are the seven angels and the trumpets? Why are they there? What's going on? So the seven angels simply stand ready to sound the seven trumpets initiating limited judgment and the warn of coming destruction. So oftentimes trumpets are used in biblical times to warn like, hey, there is a war coming, there's destruction, there's an army. It's a warning sign that something bad is about to happen, that something is going to go down.
00:06:38
Speaker
And the third thing is this, the text explanation, is who are the saints? As Ryan has been showing us through this series, there's some different opinions on the church and the saints during the tribulation.
00:06:54
Speaker
There are a couple of ideas or options. The first is that these are recently converted tribulation saints. Or this is the other one, that the saints are the people of God, the church who are still present during these trying times. And I personally favor the second view that the saints are God's people.
00:07:13
Speaker
and the church. And so I know there's some debate in this. Two things. One, go listen to the podcast that was done on this topic. And secondly, if you disagree with me in the strongest sense, Pastor Ryan will be available after service. He's not here right now, which, OK, we'll go find him. OK.
00:07:35
Speaker
Now that we've explained a few parts of this text more, I want to really unpack what are the main observations that John's trying to get across to us in Revelation 8 through 1 through 5.
Prayer's Purpose Beyond Personal Desires
00:07:47
Speaker
This is the first one. Prayer is an offering to God.
00:07:52
Speaker
Prayer is an offering to God. See, prayer and incense are often associated in the Bible. Just as incense is seen in the Bible as a precious and pleasing aroma to God, so are our prayers.
00:08:11
Speaker
It seems more plausible to say that incense is the prayers. They are acceptable to God just as incense is pleasing to him. So are the prayers of you. So are my prayers and the prayers of the church, his people.
00:08:26
Speaker
See the Old Testament usage supports this notion. In Psalm 142 or 141 verse two, it says this. But here's what we see in this portion of scripture. It's important to note this. Prayer is powerful.
00:08:56
Speaker
Not because of any power of our own, though. It's because it's a sacrifice of words, it's a sacrifice of thought, and it's a sacrifice of care to Him. So prayer is powerful, not because of the one who's praying above, but because of who we are praying to. He is the one that makes it powerful.
00:09:17
Speaker
When God responds to our offering of prayers, something happens. So I wanna share this quote by Thomas Taurus, and it says this, more potent, more powerful than all dark and mighty powers let loose in the world.
00:09:33
Speaker
More powerful than anything else is the power of prayer set ablaze by the fire of God and cast upon the earth. We see this in Revelation 8.5. The reality is it's not the prayer that is the powerful, it's that God himself has set it ablaze and that the power of prayer comes from who we're praying to.
00:09:57
Speaker
And I think sometimes prayer can feel like this thing that we should do or we ought to do because it's in the Christian faith and tradition.
Overcoming Barriers to Prayer
00:10:05
Speaker
And we see it sometimes as we see it in scripture, but we don't realize it doesn't just stop at the ceiling. It doesn't just go into the abyss to the unknown. It goes on the altars before God. Whoo.
00:10:18
Speaker
We need to realize that prayer's not just this thing we ought to do and we have to do, but we get to commune with the Creator and the sustainer of all things. I think we need to remember who we're praying to, the Lamb, the victorious one, the standing slain Lamb who has victory over all.
00:10:43
Speaker
Something offered to God is never wasted though. And this goes for our prayers too, which leads me to my next observation, which is this, prayer is never wasted. You see, Jesus in Luke 18.1 says this, and he told them a parable to the effect that they ought to pray always and not lose heart. We don't lose heart in prayer because of who we pray to.
00:11:09
Speaker
When we make prayer about our prayers and not who we're praying to, we can miss the point. If we make the entire prayer about our request, remember I said, let me be careful. Our entire point of our prayer is not our request, but it's who we're praying to. God wants us to cast his cares. God wants us to bring those to him. So I'm not saying don't do that, but I'm saying remember who we're bringing those cares to. That's where the power comes from. What we have in this text of Revelation is an explanation
00:11:39
Speaker
And what happened to the millions upon millions of prayers over the last 2,000 years as the saints have cried out again and again, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. See, not one of these prayers prayed in faith have been ignored. Not one of these prayers is lost or forgotten. Not one of these have been ineffectual or pointless.
00:12:07
Speaker
They've all been gathered on the altar before the throne of God. See, this passage teaches that judgment of the seven trumpets is an answer to the prayer of the saints. And what's wild about this passage so far, like the prayer's never wasted. I don't know if you've prayed at least once. Sometimes you're like, man, is this really doing anything? Have you thought that before? It's okay to be honest in church. I ask you to be.
00:12:35
Speaker
Sometimes when I pray, I'm like, is this doing anything? Is this going anywhere? But sometimes when we don't realize that our either unanswered prayer or the no to our prayer is the best answer that we could get from God, which leads me to my next one. But if prayer is never wasted, then what is it doing?
00:12:54
Speaker
Prayer is the opportunity for our will, our lives, our priorities, and our preferences to be aligned with His. This leads me to my third observation,
The Essential Yet Undervalued Practice of Prayer
00:13:05
Speaker
which is this. Prayer aligns your will to His. Think about the thousands of years of prayers that have happened to this point in Revelation.
00:13:21
Speaker
The prayers of God's people asking for relief, asking for justice, asking for retribution, and asking for much, much more. You see, we see this submission of will modeled by Jesus in the garden. He says, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.
00:13:48
Speaker
At the end of the day, when we pray, our goal should not be for us to become aligned with Jesus's will, not the other way around. See, when we're praying, we're not trying to convince God that what we think is better, what we think is best. When we're praying for the alignment of our wills, we're saying, God, we trust you. You are above us, you are before us, and you are after us. Is there anybody in the room that likes puzzling? Anybody? I hate it.
00:14:18
Speaker
Yeah, sorry for the bait and switch. All the people are like, nope, I don't like puzzling. Who's this guy? Okay, that was a bit aggressive, my bad.
00:14:29
Speaker
But this is why, like when I look at puzzles, I'm like, everything is in chaos, just like in the beginning of the time in Genesis, you know, just the world is forming this out void, that's how puzzling feels to me. And I'm like, looking at these puzzle pieces, and they're all like, just zoomed in, I'm like, this kind of looks like it'd be this part, this part, like, it just feels overwhelming. And so, this little puzzle piece, put in the picture of the whole thing, makes a lot more sense than if I'm just focused on that one piece, right?
00:15:01
Speaker
And so what happens is my limited perspective, if I'm asking God to act according to my limited single puzzle piece, when he has a scope of the whole thing in mind, it makes far more sense for me to pray according to his view than mine, right?
00:15:21
Speaker
But the reality is, is when we pray, not that we don't submit our request to him, not that we don't ask for things, that's not what I'm saying, but what I'm saying is, in that asking, your will be done though. In that asking, it's about him and his preferences and his opinions. We're not trying to convince God that our will and our preferences are better than his. Remember, prayer is an offering, it is a sacrifice.
00:15:51
Speaker
So when we pray, pray with openness, pray with a willingness for your will and desire and your passions to be challenged. Now I understand that preaches better than it feels in real life, right? But we're not for the sake of being challenged, but for the sake of being aligned to his will, which is far better than anything you or I can manufacture.
00:16:18
Speaker
So when we realize that we're praying to be aligned to His will, we're saying, God, bring me into alignment of what you have decided, because no matter what that is, it's far better whatever you choose than what I can manufacture and make for myself. At the base layer, it's trust. It's trust. You see, we sang it a little bit earlier.
00:16:43
Speaker
We sang this line, break down the walls of all my tradition. Break down the walls of all my religion. And the next line is, your way is better. We like that line as long as his version of better and my version of better line up. We like to pray for the alignment of his will in our life as long as it aligns to ours as well. But you see,
00:17:13
Speaker
Prayer is much fuller than that. Prayer is much deeper than that. Prayer is far more fulfilling than filling our needs. It's meeting Him. It's aligning to Him. It's understanding that His weight is better, even if it doesn't feel like it right now. You see,
00:17:40
Speaker
We've talked about prayers and offering. Prayer is never wasted, and prayer aligns our will with His. What's the main takeaway of this text, Revelation 8,
Persistent Prayer and God's Timing
00:17:48
Speaker
1 through 5? It's this. God hears and responds to the prayer of His people. Man, if prayer is so valuable, it's so impactful, and it's just the necessity to our life, every single one of us probably pray more than anything else we do, right?
00:18:08
Speaker
That was a test to see if you're just saying, uh-huh, at the pauses, or if you're actually listening. Amen. Wait, hold up. When we're not valuing prayer, we're opting for something else we think is more important. When we don't value prayer, there's something else that we are deeming as more important than prayer. So this brings up this big question for us today.
00:18:37
Speaker
What gets in the way of prayer? The very first thing is this. What gets in the way of prayer is we are deceived. It's a bit aggressive, but we're coming out hot, it's fine. You may ask, deceived by what? We're deceived by the things in our life that promise security, but have no real power to provide the security we're actually looking for.
00:19:04
Speaker
I'm gonna say that again. We're deceived by the things in our lives that promise security, but really have no real power to provide the security that we're actually looking for. What's one of the quickest ways for these things to get exposed? It's fear. Fear. Fear causes us to do weird things, right? Anybody else in that same boat as me? Like, fear causes me to do some weird things.
00:19:34
Speaker
It exposes what we trust most, what we rely on most. It exposes what in our lives are good intentions and what are actual habits. So the second fear enters your life, that something's going on and you're full and you're fearful and you're trying to wrestle through this emotion and your back's against the wall, what fear does is says, what I think I do and what I actually do are actually exposed.
00:20:03
Speaker
When all sifted down, what rises to the surface, it exposes what our habits are, not our intentions. Meaning that when something in life that provokes fear in your heart, what you instinctively run to reveals what your trust is truly in. So when fear enters your life and you have that knee-jerk reaction to respond some way,
00:20:27
Speaker
What you have is a gracious moment from the Holy Spirit to reveal where your trust actually lies. What do you focus on? What do you look to for comfort? What do you look for for stability? For me, when I feel fearful,
00:20:49
Speaker
I run around completing menial tasks, AKA busyness. Anybody else not saying both is me? I feel like I don't know what's happening. There's chaos. I feel out of control. So I'm going to start hyper-focusing on all the little stuff around me and just start to fix everything. Anybody else? OK, one person's crazy. Got it. Because fear has exposed that I have a lot less control than I deceived myself into thinking I have. That's what it's done.
00:21:19
Speaker
So anything and everything that quote needs to be done, I hyper focus on that to try to regain some sort of perceived control.
00:21:28
Speaker
So recently there's a time where I was feeling like kind of like anxious and like fearful. I didn't know what was going on. Man, I hyper focused on setting up my daughter's play set. It got done fast, but it was full of anxiousness. Like I'm just trying to grab for something to make myself feel like I have more control than I really do. But what has happened? I have, so the thing that I am deceived by that fear has exposed that I want complete control. Anybody else feel that?
00:21:54
Speaker
It feels chaotic, right? Instead we're like, find something to make me feel like that I have control over something because fear has exposed. I'm not as in control as I like to think I am. Or that I tricked myself into thinking. The second piece that gets in the way of prayer is we're distracted. This is the, I don't have time response. This next line's gonna make me sound way smarter than I actually am. But there's a Harvard business article that I read.
00:22:27
Speaker
an article and a study done about the culture of busyness. And this is what they found. The article starts with this story of an individual who immigrated to the US, and they came to believe that the word busy meant good. Because every time they asked somebody, how are you doing? They responded with, busy.
00:22:54
Speaker
This prompted some research and some experiments, and they found that 8 out of 10 adults responded with busy when they were asked the same question, how are you? So research suggests that our days are becoming increasingly jam-packed, and people are saying that they don't have enough time rose to 80% in 2018, which is not two years ago. It's like six years ago, in case you're wondering.
00:23:22
Speaker
I feel, it feels like last year, whatever. Moving on. Always had a little crisis there. But this is just the start of the problem. Now, busyness has become some sort of status symbol that has been elevated to show our importance. Not only are people feeling like they have less time,
00:23:48
Speaker
But now the badge of busyness has become some sort of achievement or false sense of importance. This mindset is absolutely crept into the church. Our busyness, in our busyness, we tend to see prayer as a last resort than our first response. We look at prayer as something if I can get to rather than the foundation of who we are.
00:24:19
Speaker
Or we value our schedule, our demands, maybe. Maybe like Brennan, the business is happening to me, not started by me. Our priorities are over value in prayer. These things we have misaligned. We have put other things over the value of prayer. And this is not just another you should pray more sermon because that's not what I'm trying to say. I'm trying to help us understand who prayer connects us to.
00:24:46
Speaker
Prayer is the very foundation of communing with God, with the creator and sustainer of all things. So why would my knee-jerk reaction not be run to the creator of all things, but it runs to busyness, it runs to distraction, it runs to somewhere else. Are you feeling anxious? Are you feeling overwhelmed?
00:25:13
Speaker
Are you feeling like there's no way to get all the things done that are demanded of me every single day? The response is not a larger margin for time. It's resting in the one who's over all those things.
00:25:29
Speaker
And you can pray as you go. I'm not saying like it doesn't have to be like, let's set up a perfect worship playlist. Let's get the mood. Maybe I can get like Michael to come play spiritual keys for me at home. Like that's not what I'm saying. It's in our going. Prayer is in our being. It's praying as we're going. But what can happen is the next piece that keeps us from prayer is this. We're self-reliant.
00:25:59
Speaker
We're self-reliant. And what I've seen over the years of being a pastor and others, and also if I'm honest in myself, is self-reliance typically shows itself in two areas but comes from one source. We think too highly of ourselves or we think too little of ourselves. But the deeper issue at the end of the day is pride.
00:26:23
Speaker
So we think we got it because we're capable. We are awesome. We're so efficient. Our to-do list gets done every single day that we're making tons of money. Like whatever the thing is that makes you feel like you've got it, that can lead us to a place of we don't need prayer because we got it on our own. Or on the flip side of this coin, different side of the same coin is this. We quote got it because we don't wanna be a burden to anybody else, especially God.
00:26:51
Speaker
Do you feel like a burden to people? Has that feeling of being a burden to people reflected how you view God, how He views you, that you're a burden to Him? But humility is the antidote for pride, no matter what side of the coin you fall on. C.S. Lewis said it best in mere Christianity, humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.
00:27:21
Speaker
Which, what this can do is pride leads to self-reliance and how can we be dependent on the spirit of God if we're dependent on ourselves? How can we have room for the spirit of God, the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead, dwells within us? How can we wait on the spirit of God if we're too busy relying on ourselves? Self-reliance baits us into thinking that we're in control.
00:27:53
Speaker
will be fine, and a life that is void of prayer is a life that has been baited into the lie that you're fine. Are you though? So if our mindset is I've got this, then there won't be any room for prayer.
00:28:23
Speaker
If our mindset is I've got this, then there won't be any room for prayer to the one who actually has it. Man, we've become so self-reliant that I'll just do this and get it done myself. And we're struggling under the weight of being our own savior. Great news. The world has a savior and it's not you. Your life has a savior and it's not you.
00:28:57
Speaker
It's in the submission and the beauty of the standing slain lamb, right? That's the best news. Because the weight of this world will crush you. The weight of self-reliance will crush you.
00:29:18
Speaker
The weight of being deceived or distracted is going to crush us if we don't realize that we must go to the one who reigns over it all. But it comes, this question gets brought up in my heart is, where does deception come from? Where does distraction come from? Where does this lie of self-reliance come from?
00:29:45
Speaker
And as we just unpacked, we can lose hearts and confidence in prayer, whether that was a major or multiple unseemly unanswered prayers. We'd be like, Brandon, I'm discouraged by prayer because in the darkest time of my life, I feel like I prayed to God and I got nothing.
00:30:06
Speaker
that what I was praying for to be healed actually didn't end up getting healed. Maybe there's brokenness in your family. Maybe there's been a tragedy in your family. And you're like, Brent, I prayed in the middle of that. I get it. I get it. In 2009, I was in the hospital praying that my dad wouldn't die. And he did. So what do you do with that?
00:30:37
Speaker
Do you lose heart? Do I project the brokenness of this world onto the good Father? Or do I choose to be like, God, I don't understand this. But a good thing, I don't need to understand it. I just need to rest in the one who reigns over it all. Prayer is so beautiful. So reassuring.
00:31:05
Speaker
that it is far more than just an obligation that we have, but it's a privilege that we get to go to the one who holds all of this. So let's start back at the Lord's Prayer. Jesse took us through it this morning at the beginning of service.
00:31:28
Speaker
Jesus calls us to pray first and foremost for his name to be hollowed, for his kingdom to come, for his will to be done. Then, as a support and the means to those things being accomplished, that we would have our daily bread, that we would be protected from the devil, and that we would be led in the path of righteousness and so on.
00:31:56
Speaker
And so clearly the heart of our prayer life is to be this. Listen, Father, cause your name in this world to be revered and to be loved and to be praised and to be honored and start right here in my heart first. And then advance your kingdom. Oh God, cause your will to be done.
00:32:25
Speaker
This comes from what we value most. The problem of being deceived, distracted, and self-reliant comes from what we value most. Is what you value most communing and being in a relationship with Jesus, the slain, risen lamb, above all? Prayer is the timeless way to communicate with the creator and sustainer of all of this.
00:32:50
Speaker
So once again, it's just not something we do, or we ought to do, or we have to do, but it's a privilege to enter into this communion and this relationship with the one who holds all of this anyways. Maybe you're in here this morning or watching online or whatever, and you haven't submitted your life to Jesus yet. And you would say, I am the Lord. I am self-reliant over my own life. I am the Lord over and the master over all things I'm doing. I wanna ask you, how is the weight of that going?
00:33:21
Speaker
How is the weight of shouldering all the decisions you've ever made and the decisions you will make and the demands that you have on you and knowing that deep down within you, you're missing this connection with the creator, the one who invites you into relationship with him. I wanna invite you to come to Jesus this morning. I wanna invite you to lay down all that you are before Jesus, the one who has victory over all things. But I wanna leave and finish with this thought.
Final Call: Embrace Prayer with Trust
00:33:53
Speaker
It may often seem that our prayers are not being answered. Have you felt that? That they're often offered in vain. But revelation assures us that God hears the prayers of the saints, his church, his people, all through history.
00:34:14
Speaker
God's people have prayed for His kingdom to come, for His will to be done. Every prayer for the coming kingdom will certainly be answered. The prayers for justice voiced by martyrs will not be ignored. Justice will be realized. The new creation will arrive. The wicked will be judged. Our prayers make a difference. They're one of the means that God has ordained to accomplish His purpose.
00:34:41
Speaker
We must not lose heart or ever think that our prayers for goodness to prevail are ignored. Instead, we must continue to pray to our wise and sovereign God. Our prayers will be answered at just the right time.
00:35:04
Speaker
But allow, when you pray to when they're answered at just the right time, allow that gap between the two to be sustained by the goodness and the character of God, not our own understanding. So would you pray with me? Jesus, we thank you. We thank you that you are so good. You are so faithful.
00:35:33
Speaker
that your goodness meets us, that we can come to you in the unknown, that we can come to you in the unsure, in the fearful spots, in the overwhelmed spots, that we have a chance to commune with you, the one who is over all. So God, we would pray.
00:35:51
Speaker
I pray that today that we grow in our paradise, that we grow in our value of communion with you and having a conversation with you and God that we get close to you by talking with you. So we love you and thank you for who you are. Amen.